In the same plenary hall where the UN General Assembly has voted for the cessation of this policy, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, reiterated the injustice and absurdity of its permanence.

The South American leader rejected the pressure of the northern nation against “rebellious countries that do not fit into its domain like Cuba or Venezuela, because they need to show their power of destruction to the remaining 99 percent of humanity so that they stop directing the power of the world,” he said.

For his part, the head of state of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, considered the reinclusion of the largest of the Antilles in the list of sponsors of terrorism by the US State Department is unjustifiable.

“It cannot be justified to keep Cuba on a unilateral list of States that supposedly promote terrorism,” he denounced.

The representatives of the forum also heard the president of Angola, João Lourenço, demand the end of the economic siege against the island and the sanctions against Zimbabwe, policies that he described as unjust and inhuman.

The Angolan dignitary reiterated the need to put an end to these measures that “increase the suffering of these peoples and greatly hinder the economic and social development of these countries.”

In the last three decades, the UN General Assembly has voted annually on a resolution presented by the Caribbean nation to demand the end of this siege and to disclose its excessive impact on the economy.

In the most recent vote, held in November 2023, the text received 187 votes in favor, two votes against (the United States and Israel) and the abstention of one member state (Ukraine).

The legislation recognized the blockade as the central element of the United States’ policy towards Cuba for more than six decades, with incessant effects on 80 percent of the island’s population, who know their country only through the blockade.

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